The telegraph, said Mr. Phillips, is said to report to-night, that the guns are firing, either out of Fort Sumter or into it; that to-morrow's breeze, when it sweeps from the North, will bring to us the echo of the first Lexington battle of the new Revolution. Well, what shall we say of such an hour? My own feeling is a double one. It is like the triumph of sadness,—rejoicing and sorrow. I cannot, indeed, congratulate you enough on the sublime spectacle of twenty millions of
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compromise, and held to the faith of Massachusetts.
This meeting uttered the sentiments of the majority of the State, and was designed as a counterblast to the meeting held the week before at Faneuil Hall.
The speeches made and resolutions passed at these meetings expressed the sentiments of the people of the State.
Those who were at Faneuil Hall would rather compromise the issues than have bloodshed and civil war. The men who were at Cambridge would risk the chance of civil war rather than compromise.
There was another party, which, though small in number, was powerful in eloquence, moral character, and cultivated intellect.
Its zeal never flagged, its leaders never faltered.
Its hatred of slavery was chronic.
Its martyr spirit was felt and acknowledged.
Its policy was aggressive.
It made no compromises; it sought no office; it asked no favor; and it gave no quarter.
This was the abolition party.
The leaders of it were Mr. Garrison and Mr. Phillips.
The Federal Constitution, as interpreted by them, was a pro-slavery instrument: they would not, therefore, support it. The Union was ‘a covenant with hell:’ therefore they would break it. For a quarter of a century they had thus spoken, and consistently acted, and held their ground up to the very day that the rebels fired on Sumter.
The following extract from a speech delivered in New Bedford by Mr. Phillips, on the evening of the 9th of April, 1861, is curious and remarkable, when we consider the positions held by that gentleman before the war, during the war, and since the war. It shows that learned men and orators are sometimes false prophets; and what is visible to plain men is hid from them:—
1868. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
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